THE BIG DIG: Milford-area crews able to keep roads clear

Wednesday

Milford-area officials credited a statewide driving ban with keeping the streets open and easy to clear during Tuesday's blizzard.

Some 31 inches of snow fell on Milford itself, but the area was largely spared from power outages and traffic accidents.

Local town administrators and Department of Public Works heads said Wednesday that work crews were able to keep up with the storm, though they still had some digging out to do.

Milford Highway Surveyor Scott Crisafulli said crews in town punched in at about 7 a.m. Monday and went home at 11 p.m. Tuesday.

"With some of the roads, we got a little behind, but we were able to catch up," he said. "The worst was from 3 a.m. (Tuesday) to noon or 1 p.m. - it was pretty much whiteout conditions throughout. It takes about an hour or an hour and a half to complete a plow route and, by the time they got back, there was already about six inches on the roads."

Crisafulli said the department did encounter some problems with broken-down vehicles, but it was able to rearrange routes and get the roads plowed.

According to Crisafulli, there is still work to be done.

"Some of the roads are a bit narrow right now - we'll be straightening and widening them," he said Wednesday. "The sidewalks have to be done in order to have school. They have to be at least 90 percent cleared, so we'll probably be out all night (Wednesday night)."

Hopedale Town Coordinator Steven Sette said his town's highway department had done an outstanding job in keeping the roads clear and staying ahead of the storm.

"Keeping people off the roads was key," he said. "As of right now, we're all open - the town hall opened at 10 a.m."

He did note that the town's schools were closed Wednesday, as the sidewalks were not yet fully clear.

Sette praised National Grid for keeping its communities updated on its efforts, and said the fact that there were no outages helped the storm response immensely.

Franklin Town Administrator Jeffrey Nutting said town crews were still out Wednesday, working to clear roads, municipal parking lots and sidewalks. He said the driving ban had been a great help.

"There was hardly anyone on the streets (Tuesday), so they were able to do their work unimpeded," he said. "There's still downtown to do, which they'll start (Thursday)."

Since the town's sidewalks will not be clear for some time, Nutting said, the school district's buses will be picking up students on Thursday who would normally walk.

Michael Boynton, town administrator of Medway, said the local highway department was able to keep pace with the snow, despite periods in which more than four inches an hour fell.

"The crews did a good job," he said. "We're still at it... (crews) will be overnight, hauling snow from intersections."

According to Boynton, plow crews had been at the local schools all day Wednesday, and that they would hopefully be ready to re-open Thursday.

National Grid spokeswoman Danielle Horn said the utility had 850 line crews and 380 tree crews available during the storm in Massachusetts and Rhode Island.

"We had classified this as a 'Level Two' storm, in which we can expect up to 30 percent of our electricity customers to be impacted," she said. "Overall, fewer than 1 percent were affected."

The nature of the snow, she said, helped stem outages.

"It was light and dry, which is much friendlier to electrical lines," she said.

Mike Gleason can be reached at 508-634-7546 or mgleason@wickedlocal.com. For news throughout the day, follow him on Twitter @MGleason_MDN.

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